NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS...

Christian Bands, Crossing Over: A new crop of bands has broadened the appeal of Christian rock by emphasizing musical originality rather than a sermonizing message. (NEIL STRAUSS, 6/10/03, NY Times)

The Christian-rock underground is now as much a steppingstone to mainstream success as any other music scene. Despite the image of Christian pop as soft and conformist, most of these bands work on the harder or more alternative edges of rock: punk, hardcore, grunge, new metal and indie-rock.

"What's interesting to me is that this is another fertile ground for development," said Tim Devine, the general manager of Columbia Records, who recently signed a Christian grunge band called Switchfoot to the label. "And other than the lyrics having a positive slant, it is not much different than other scenes that have burgeoned over the years, from the Seattle scene to the emo crowd." (Emo is a more confessional, expressive and pop-friendly variant of punk rock.)

For John Rubeli, a talent scout for Atlantic Records who signed P.O.D., a punk group from the Christian scene that cracked the Billboard Top 10, the strength of the movement is its national network of clubs.

"The whole thing about the Christian market is that all these bands are able to tour because youth groups and churches have the ability to put on shows," he said. "Like the old punk rock, you have an infrastructure that allows all these bands to play. Because much of it is in the suburbs, a lot of these kids going to the shows aren't even Christian kids, but their parents won't allow them to go to rock shows. So then they tell their moms that their friend Mike's youth group from church is putting on the show, and their parents can call Mike's mom to check. This is where I found P.O.D."

P.O.D. (which stands for Payable on Death), whose manager used to run a Christian rock club, is no anomaly. In the past year other acts from the Christian touring circuit have found mainstream success, among them Chevelle (which is on this year's Ozzfest, the summer hard-rock tour led by Ozzy Osbourne), Evanescence (whose album "Fallen" is No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts) and, the most popular of them all, Creed.

Beyond them many other bands on Christian-owned labels are bubbling just under the Billboard charts. Many are on the Seattle-based Tooth & Nail label, home to Anberlin as well as the Christian bands Further Seems Forever (whose original singer is now in Dashboard Confessional), Mae, Zao and Starflyer 59. All are being pursued by major labels. Other Tooth and Nail bands, like the Juliana Theory, MxPx and P.O.D., have already been signed by majors.

"When I talk to major labels and say that some of our bands are playing these Christian venues, they say that they've never heard of them," said Brandon Ebel, who owns and runs Tooth & Nail. "Then, when I tell them that 1,000 people are coming to the shows, they flip out." [...]

"I walked around the G.M.A.'s," said Mr. Christian, of Anberlin, referring to the Gospel Music Association's annual Nashville convention, "and I thought, `I would wonder if Jesus would be in any of these bands.' Why would he be here? God said, `Why send a doctor to those who are well; I'm going to send a doctor to the sick.' I guarantee you he would have been opening up for the Sex Pistols back in the day."

The key here is the continuing demarginalization of religion in American culture. From Presidents to TV to bestseller lists to the pop charts to a clash of civilizations, religion, which the secular humanists expected to dry up and wither away in the face of reason, is instead returning to front and center in the West's, not coincidentally, healthiest culture.

MORE RETROGRADE AMERICA:
More Moms Staying at Home With Their Kids (GENARO C. ARMAS, Jun 16, 2003, Associated Press)

Nearly 10.6 million children were being raised by full-time stay-at-home moms last year, up 13 percent in a little less than a decade.

Experts credit the economic boom, the cultural influence of America's growing Hispanic population and the entry into parenthood of a generation of latchkey kids.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2003 11:58 PM